Maternal Bond
by Divinus Odium
Summary: "Like mother, like son." For years, Nina and Steve have ignored the biological connection between them. But when danger follows their footsteps, the mother must protect her offspring as people start to die. Nina-centric, not incest.


**Disclaimer**: None of the characters and the game belong to me; they belong to Namco (and Bandai too, since they merged together). If they belonged to me, this story would most definitely be canon.

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**_The Past - _Prologue  
**

She didn't know whether or not she could ever accept the truth. As she stumbled upon a cheap, safe motel room to hide from Lei Wulong—who had been chasing her since the beginning of the tournament—she contemplated over the fact that (instead of worrying where her next meal would be) she couldn't kill Steve Fox. No, it was only right that she didn't. "…because, he's my _son_." Nina never hesitated when it came to striking down a target, not even as she thought of his wife and children. Do blood relations really run that deep? To the point that an assassin can't do her job successfully? Her memories still weren't fully restored, but throughout the fourth tournament, all she felt was the sadism and sheer joy of defeating her opponents. Something was missing amongst the crowd of fighters that were in her way, but since that was irrelevant, she didn't consider anything else.

Her thoughts returned to the matter at hand. The shape of his eyes, the hair color…he received the traits from her. She eyed the reflection in the mirror, remembering her close encounter with him. When they had a direct eye contact with each other, it was far from looking at herself. He was a man; he had a very muscular built, expected from a boxer. His nose and mouth were different (he possibly got them from his anonymous father; scientists weren't picky when it came to their resources), and his facial structure wasn't familiar to her.

Then again, she had no idea if she even had male relatives. The assassin didn't remember anything else about family, other than the fact that she had a sister. Unfortunately, Nina slapped the woman—who was trying to help her—when a sour memory invaded her thoughts. She closed her eyes, a memory she created months before floating to the surface.

She was packing. _The Mishima Zaibatsu was so _nice _to offer her a room in their laboratories, but she wasn't intending on overstaying. The woman, who was named Anna, was watching her quick hands snatch the clothes to the bag. She looked concerned, worried—but for what reason? The voice in her head questioned it bitterly, remembering _why_ she was in this situation in the first place. Why she became a subject for the "Cold Sleep" Doctor Bosconovitch created. _Everything was going fine._ Kazuya was about to assassinated, be rid of, but…_you interfered with my assassination attempt. You let me be captured, where Kazuya gave me very little choice; be a lab rat or be killed. Even with pride, our father did not raise me to give up so easily. _So, she participated. But the pure, unadulterated hate was in her heart. It was never something she could easily forgive. However, was it even in her to forgive a stranger?_

_ "Where are you going?" Anna asked, to which she hissed. May it be that she spent time with Nina, watching her and taking care of her while the assassin remembered nothing; it wasn't enough. Within a flash, the eldest sister's vengeance was triggered toward the youngest once more._

_ "You want to know where I'm going? Why, so you can capture me again and let me be held captive for another fifteen years?" her reply was as cold as ice, causing the younger Williams to wince. "Guess what, _brat_. If you thought that, after what I've been through, we were gonna go frolic down a field and become close sisters—you're wrong. Don't bother searching for me, _ever_." Zipping the bag up, she slung it onto her shoulders, and walked out of there._

Now, she lived off of the money she earned from assassination missions. It gave her more to save than ordinary jobs, and she felt like it was in her blood to kill. At times, there would be no contracts arriving her way and she would wonder where her next meal would come from, but assassinating was her only forte. Nothing else seemed good enough for her. Plus, the men she had to assassinate were for the better of the world, so killing one corrupt official called for saving one district of their dirtying.

She did the bad mistake of glancing back at the mirror again, and Nina was harshly reminded of why she was back into hiding in the first place. She couldn't say she was simply _joyed_ to have a son, especially since he was created without her knowledge. If she were to focus on the joys and happiness a mother would have felt, _she felt nothing_. Nothing, but absolute guilt and hatred. No matter how dirty her work had been, killing people with no remorse, she did not deserve to have been treated like a mere animal during her reluctant stay under Doctor Bosconovitch's care. That was the root of her hatred.

Second of all, she almost murdered the only blood she had in this world; and to see the look on his face as he found out she was going to _kill_ him, it created the guilt. Why, _why_ did he have to chase after her, after knocking the cop down? Something seemed to click inside his head, something that churned her stomach.

_"Thanks," she glanced over for a second, before continuing her sprint to get out of the area. She heard a hurried 'wait!', but she was already turning over the corner. The sounds of shoes pounding against the pavement alerted Nina, and she could feel eyes on her. _

Lose your pursuers. Break their line of sight, and crack their necks from behind. _The voice of a man, a man who felt relevant to her, echoed in her thoughts. She chose to listen to this instruction, and darted to the alleyway. There, before he caught up, she hid herself at a small corner—out of his sight. He ran past by her, her _son_, and as he glanced sideways, she aimed her gun and pulled the trigger then._

_ Instead of a bullet swirling its way to Steve, the gun clicked. She knew that the magazine was empty, but her aim was still on him. He looked at her with wide eyes, and she wondered if this was what she would have looked like, had she shown any emotion. Rather than asking her not to shoot him, he uttered, "you're…" as if he was confirming to her who she was. Unfortunately, this was when the cop decided to appear, yelling his now famous 'Freeze!' phrase. Her eyes widened in surprise. She had forgotten about Lei Wulong (though it took him long enough to catch up; what hindered him from following after her?), and it was reckless of her to let personal issues distract her from her job. However, before Wulong could even approach her and arrest her, Steve ran up and tackled him this time. _

_Her feet ran on instinct, and before she could find out what Steve was going to say—she was gone._

She ran her hand through her hair, before grabbing a hair tie and returning the state of her hair into a ponytail. Her question as to how Steve was born had been answered (it didn't take long to think of the fact that Mishima Zaibatsu had some "minor" adjustments done to her), and she knew how she got herself in this predicament.

She grabbed her temporary cellular device after leaving the small bathroom, scanning through the small list of contacts. Even with the stuff that she's figured out, there were still more to crack. And she knew, for certain, who could help her answer these questions.

Anna Williams. Her sister.

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**Author's Note**: Hello! I'd like to say thanks for reading this short, and that I appreciate it greatly! Reviews would be great, but I'm not forcing you to do it. Anyway, with the second flashback, I will have to state that I merged Steve's and Nina's endings together—it works best that way. I would have merged Lei Wulong's as well, but that equals to Nina being captured-which is not what I'm trying to do here. And if Nina's too OOC, don't worry; she'll be as cold as you can recall. For the next few chapters, I'm focusing that on "The Past", a sort of arc where it's mainly about what happened in the fourth, fifth, and sixth installments (both sides, of course). Probably gonna bore you guys more than anything, but not to worry; after the sixth installment has been covered, the arc will turn to "The Present". And that's where my plot starts to mix in with the game's canon events.

Now, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next chapter.

- _Divinus Odium_


End file.
